“I am alone, in a cold, grey, desolate land. There is no other to be found, no companion to ease the going. Yet Thou art the Light I bear (even when I know it not), and the strong, single staff that supporteth me.”

CARD NAME: Hermit, meaning one who is solitary, or outside of society as such, comes from the Middle English heremite, from Medieval Latin heremIta, from Late Latin eremita, from the Greek eremites, from eremia, “desert;” which, in turn, comes from eremos, “solitary.” That is, it means essentially the same as YChYDH, Yechidah, “the only one,” the distinctive consciousness attributed to Kether.

ESOTERIC MEANING: The Consciousness of Will. It is the pattern of all creatures. By this consciousness, one knows the actuality of Primordial Wisdom.

TREE of LIFE: Tifereth to Chesed. (Links ‘Beauty’ and ‘Mercy’; or the Ego-center with Memory. Tifereth is the lantern, or Guiding Light; Chesed the summit of the Ruach, opening onto the infinite heavens above. The sanctification of the EGO or SELF in the RECOLLECTION that the HGA is the One Self mirrored in each personal expression of self. Ascent to spiritual aristocracy.)

ESOTERIC TITLE: The Prophet of the Eternal, the Magus of the Voice of Power

TANTRIC & ALCHEMICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The Spermatozoon in the womb, a bearer of Solar Light.

"To advance—that means Work. Patient, exhausting, thankless, often bewildering Work. Dear sister, if you would but Work! Work blindly, foolishly, misguidedly, it doesn’t matter in the end: Work in itself has absolute virtue." -Magick Without Tears

The Hermit (Virgo) represents the lower edge on the North face of the Cube of Space.

He is the edge that connects the North face (The Tower - Mars) with the Below face (The Priestess - Moon).

As a force, he could be said to represent that force which is shared by the functions of both Mars and the Moon (The Tower and The Priestess). As such, it may be conceived as a "building/uniting" force, where the meaning of the two words overlap.

As a form of consciousness, it may be imagined as that consciousness in which there is agreement between the "Exciting Consciousness" of The Tower and the "Uniting Consciousness" of The Priestess, resulting in the "Consciousness of Will" represented by The Hermit.

I began to tune into the card before meditating on it & I had this idea in my mind that felt like it came from my heart. "When God created the Universe, it must have wanted to create something that was reflection of it's Self. Like begets like."

The egg with the snake wrapped around it sits snugly in an empty space. The sperm in the womb. In a sense, we are sill that same sperm cell that fertilized.

Our consciousness teems with possibility.

The figure in the card is obsessed with the egg...it's almost like the figure has just discovered the egg.

It is completely enamored with this egg but still mindful enough to extend a hand, lighting the way for others, or maybe just lighting the way for the sake of lighting the way...

Day Two:Seeds...everything starts out as a seed. And then it grows, producing more seeds.

All of the grain in the card is bending towards the lantern. The lantern is the real centerpiece of the card. The light of the lantern illuminates the path, while blinding the three-headed dogs of reason. It also seems to be a beacon for the sperm cell.

Funny how this card has both the sperm and egg in it. They're both necessary for reproduction. The sperm cell in the card is the lucky one...the one that will find and fertilize the egg.

Day Three:I'm discontent with the results of today's meditation. I feel like I did not get much of it. The Hermit eluded me.

Today's meditation was about going within One's Self. It's a solitary journey. No one else can go within the deepest parts of ourselves but us.

"To advance—that means Work. Patient, exhausting, thankless, often bewildering Work. Dear sister, if you would but Work! Work blindly, foolishly, misguidedly, it doesn’t matter in the end: Work in itself has absolute virtue." -Magick Without Tears

I keep thinking of the growing tip of branches. There's a math according to which branches appear on a tree, but the branches themselves seek the sunlight.

It's winter, and when I look at trees, I see slow, upward-growing lightning. That's what they look like.

And each of those branch tips is feeling for that energy and growing out into space according to the inflow of that energy.

I imagine that branch tip feeling it's way into the space that has the greatest potential flow of energy to it. That green tip feels its way into the sunlight and in the process turns that sunlight into more tree.

- image-associations arise upon visualizing the color-egg: water surface, with water lilies, bamboos a bit further and other water plants.- The Hand: importance of development of the hand for human being! (other animals have no handsper se)- Hermit’s lantern is in his left hand – he has a perceptive, Yin relation to it, although the figure is markedly Yang, which is emphasized by his red robe, and all the Spermatozoon symbolism (his whole figure is one huge spermatozoon in motion).- The earth is ripe, ready for harvest; the fruits are already there; this Hermit is the real King of the Earth.- “I am alone: there is no God where I am”.- He has “no face” – his face is turned to the Egg of the Spirit, which leads him; there is something Higher to be conceived now, to be given to the womb-earth to care for it until it becomes born; myth about Persephone comes to my mind: he is this Pure Soul; he is oriented to that Higher which transcends the changeability of seasons, rhythms of the earth.- As Yod, he is Phallus and Chokmah; but now represented in his union with the earth, as the fertilized Egg of the Spirit.- Versatility, speed, agility.

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- The color associations: ears of wheat, not yet quite ripe.- Service, Silence, solitude; retreat from the world into private, inner “space”; although zodiacal correspodence is Virgo, there is much of the Pluto astrological symbolism here.- Holy man, “Old Sage”…- “I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle”… “I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death.”- Cerberus here is a sort of “master of borders”, between the living and the dead; Hermit is above this, he passed through that limit; he is alive, but at the same time he is in a way dead for the world; like the spermatozoon, he exists with only one mission: to beget a new “world”, to sow his Spark into a fertile ground; wherever he goes, he sows.- This is the Silent, Inner Voice that initiates, inside each one of us (usually hard to notice, because in his Light we see all that is there to see – while the Light itself stays mostly unnoticed); he is followed by the dog: the rational mind does not interfere the communication of this Voice of the deeper Will.- This is the Creative Force in us, which manifests in our ways of giving and receiving, and of manipulating the surrounding matter.- Hand: symbol of Human Being as the Microcosm; perfected man = the Microcosmic Light.

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- Power of the seed; insemination.- The intimate aspects of the K&C experience can not be shared with others; this makes a huge part of Adept’s “loneliness”; but what he/she does with it is “shared” and sharing: disseminating LVX, “giving” it to others, working for the whole humanity and all living creatures. It can not be done directly, but only by “sowing the seed”; the results are unknown, but he (Hermit) has to sow, as his Inner Truth commands.- Cerberus serves as a guard in this Work; it’s a wild and dangerous creature, but it’s “tamed” by the Briatic influence (LVX).

"Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our age long love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we are none."

The Yod as the open hand: doing, creating, manifesting... The Yod as the seed of life that can be nurtured into the sheaf of wheat that the Virgin harvests. The Hermit as the one that withdraws from the outer world to pay close attention to that inner spark.

As a double-Virgo, I relate to this tendency to withdraw into solitude. But it's not solitude alone that makes this path worth something. It's the Work done in solitude.

"Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find thme in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there ye shall find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall be in them a joy a million times greater than this. Beware lest any force another, King against King! Love one another with burning hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath." Liber AL vel Legis, II:24

10:15 A.M.-10:42 A.M.

Worked hard at color/sphere visualization: fair meditation despite somewhat tired disposition today. Virgo: the seed of life is pure of itself; the darkness of Earth is illumined by a secret inner fire. The hand: works of manifestation are manipulated using ten digits [pun on number here.] The lamp: each of us carries a spark of the infinite; the Hermit wanders and is illumined by this union with the Secret Fire; He is the prophet who carries the seed of inspiration. This seed is virgin, as it requires a womb in which to gestate. Fire is pure. (There are difficult doctrines to this card I shall have to contemplate.) Cerberus: one is reminded of Dante and his descent into Hell: the formula of V.I.T.R.I.O.L., the alchemical aphorism: mastery of Hell is to be undertaken alone. The Orphic egg: the basis of life is within, not without: the Secret Fire burns inside every star. Manifestation/illusion is the basis of "separation and loathing,' Hell. To conquer separation by union one must undertake the path through inner darkness: alone. The secret seed of creation: fertile, not sterile, even though alone, for the seed is the realization of inner light and the womb is the mind. Chesed to Tiphareth: the influence of the Sun united to the stability and power of Chesed. "The Kingdom of Heaven is within."

Today: Sol in Aquarius, Luna in Virgo

Notes:

Orphic egg: in the ancient Greek Orphic tradition this is the cosmic egg from which hatched the primordial hermaphroditic deity Phanes/Protogonus, who in turn created the other gods. Phanes means "manifestor" or "revealer" and is related to the Greek words "light and "to shine forth."

Ancient Orphic hymn or invocation: "Infallible, hidden, brilliant scion, whose motion is whirling, you scattered the dark mist that lay before your eyes and, flapping your wings, you whirled about, and through this world you brought pure light. [Doesn't that have such an excellent relation to the Hermit?]

4.18.14

8:25-8:42 A.M.

Good visualization today: vivid green energy flowing up/down egg/sphere; working on bringing concentration both to the sphere and the card in union (meditation of this sort means making of samadhi, or concentration, on an object: in this case the card.) Orgasm is an intense form of samadhi but dissipates energy in most cases. The Hermit is representative of the stage in aspiration where one turns inward to seek the light in the darkness. The hounds are "the wild dogs in the cellar" [phrase from Nietzsche's ideas about the unconscious]--powerful unconscious drives that can manifest as mara, the evil, dissipative aspect of Illusion which distracts one from the True Self [the HGA.]

Wheat: fecundity. The Hermit seems to be adoring the Orphic egg as it peers through a window of blue sky above the benighted wanderer: the lone Adept peers up through the clouds of Hell and sees the aim of His aspiration.

4.18.14

3:32-3:45 P.M.

Meditation undertaken at the summit of Ladyface Mountain outside of Agoura Hills. Adorations of the Stele performed in the East after preliminary mantram. Excellent meditation. No notes taken.

Meditation 1Lamp with Sun of Tiphereth – light of HGA shining clearly and brightly illuminating the wayPhallic form of Hermit Bearded old man – typical symbolism of one that is grounded in wisdomThe image of beard can also symbolically represent the pouring forth of semen – the pinnacle of experience, fruition of workAround him wheat – nourishment and plentitude are automatically all around him by the virtue of his inner state, abundance comes from within Spermatozoon – the divine spark that leads to full unfolding of life; or a metaphor for the creative thought that eventually becomes action; Hermit (phallus) as the creator of the spermatozoon is now identified with the divine power of fruitful creationThree-headed black hound - Cerberus – what might be considered a symbol of fearful/bad omen is domesticated by the Hermit and made to serve him. Parts of one’s psyche that is wild, dark and animalistic – now disciplined and used to serve on the spiritual path

Meditation 2Hermit – his phallic form is plump and red – indicating ripeness, maturity, and full expression of its nature, the pinnacle of its potential realized – Kundalini flowingEgg with coiled serpent – it can also symbolically represent egg and sperm coming together - the creative power – and again fulfillment of the fundamental role of egg and sperm - their uniting for the purpose of creation is fulfilled; in the context of an individual - his or her ultimate utility fulfilled which is the pursuit and accomplishment of the Great Work. Egg and Serpent can also represent the union of compassion/love (egg = womb of love protecting the life within) with wisdom/knowledge Yod – the Father – the active force – the actor, one that produces/puts into motion

Meditation 38-faced lantern – the light of IntellectThe source of light in the card does not only come from the lantern, but from few other directions - might indicate Hermit is receptive to such light coming from the guiding principles of higher realmsHermit facing away – his face concealed, embodies quality of mystery, hidden from the eyes of the world Yod – hand – in the card his hand holds the lantern – the helping hand that guides by holding the light which shines the way, which dispels the darkness of ignorance3-headed hounds which are black – can’t help but think of Binah - Understanding, one of the significant qualities of a Hermit, especially as from Binah is formed Chesed – Mercy which the path of Yod connects with Tiphereth – BeautyMyriads of wheat crops facing in toward the Hierophant and his light. The soul is ever nourished by the inner light. Abundance comes from spiritual power.The serpent around the egg is in blue and gold colors indicated by Liber AL (Hadit, Ch II, 50): “Blue am I and gold in the light of my bride: but the red gleam is in my eyes; & my spangles are purple & green.”Egg with Serpent wrapped around it is located in the blue space, in the womb of Nuit - hence the serpent is blue and gold - in the light of his bride Nuit. It is Hermit who fertilized the Egg, hence there is an indicated connection here between the Hermit and Hadit.

"As long as space endures, as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain to dispel the miseries of the world." - Arya Shantideva, Bodhicaryāvatāra